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The ComiXology Outrage

By Gerry Conway, co-creator of The Punisher, Man-Thing, Killer Croc, and many other popular (and not so popular) characters for Marvel and DC Comics. Post originally appeared April 27 on ComicBook.com. Reprinted with permission.

And so, as we could have predicted, Amazon wrecks Comixology.

What has it been, less than a month since Jeff Bezos bought the most promising tool for renewing the mass distribution of comics in the digital era? I’ll give the man this: he’s moved faster to undermine an existing technology for the benefit of his own company than General Motors did when it sabotaged Los Angeles’s public transit Red Line for the benefit of the bus fleet they wanted to sell the City of Angels. Job well done, Jeff.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, as of yesterday, Comixology removed the storefront from its digital reading app for comics on the iPad and iPhone. It didn’t replace it with anything, just a link that takes you out of the app to the Comixology website. No big deal, right? Just one (or two, or three, as it turns out) additional step for the fanatic comic book reader to access comics on his digital reader. Nothing to get upset about.

Wrong. This is a very big deal, because it strikes to the heart of what made Comixology’s app, a near-perfect venue for discovering and falling in love with new comics, a venue creators and publishers have been searching for since the collapse of mainstream newsstand distribution in the late 1970s-early ’80s: it destroys the casual reader’s easy access to an impulse purchase. And that’s a terrible development for the future of comics.

I’m going to say something that I hope you won’t misinterpret (oh, who am I kidding, this is the internet, of course it’ll be misinterpreted): comics have been struggling in a ghetto for thirty years. That ghetto is called the comic book store. Please don’t hate me, comic book store owners — I love you, I love your dedication to the form, I fully support you, and never want to see you replaced. Yet the fact remains that for someone to discover a comic book today for the first time, he or she pretty much has to be a comic book reader already, or know someone who’s a reader, and he or she has to be comfortable immersing themselves immediately in a very specific sub-cultural experience by stepping through the doors of a comic book specialty shop.

Thanks to movies and games and other media, of course, many people do so, but not as many as once did (ask any comic book store owner) and not with any consistency. There just aren’t that many comic book stores and they just aren’t that easily accessible. (How many comic book stores are there at your neighborhood Westfield mall?)

Comic book publishers know this, and that’s why they’ve embraced digital distribution while still trying to support the comic store experience. Comixology provided a fabulous tool to do so — a way to easily introduce casual readers to new comics and provide quick and easy access to the vital impulse buy.

Impulse buys are crucial to hooking new readers to new books. I bought my first comic by impulse at a candy store around the corner from my parents’ apartment in Brooklyn in 1961. (Yes, I’m very old. Age makes me cranky sometimes but it also gives me perspective born of experience.)

That initial impulse purchase was Fantastic Four #4, and after devouring it I rushed back to the store where, surprise, issue #3 just happened to still be on sale. Bought it too, and I was hooked. From then on I bought every comic I could find with a superhero on the cover, along with tons of other comics with science fiction themes, or pure adventure, or even some with Ducks. I became a regular reader because the store was right there, on the corner, and it was easy. It had to be easy because comics were simple, quick fun — candy for the mind, a quick fix of entertainment. You don’t make quick entertainment hard to access. You may it simple and easy — an impulse buy.

Comixology’s in-App storefront did that. It provided quick and easy access to comics from the majors to the indies, one-stop shopping at the point of sale, at the moment where the customer is most vulnerable to the casual pitch: while he or she is actually reading a comic, and is in the comic-reading frame of mind, and is mildly (or intensely) interested in another nibble of brain-candy.

By forcing readers to leave the app and go searching the Comixology website, add books to a cart, process the cart, return to the app, activate download, and wait for their purchases to appear, Comixology has replaced what was a quick, simple, intuitive impulse purchase experience with a cumbersome multi-step process that will provide multiple opportunities along the path for the casual reader to think twice and decide, ah, never mind, I don’t really want to try that new book after all. I’ll stick with what I know. Or worse, when a new casual reader opens the Comixology app for the first time and sees that THERE ARE NO COMICS THERE, and that he or she will have to exit the app and go somewhere else and sign up for a new account, maybe he or she won’t bother buying a comic in the first place.

This is a disaster.

So why did Comixology do this? Why did they take a successful platform with a proven track record for introducing new casual readers to comics, and turn it upside down?

The answer, of course, is simple. Comixology didn’t do it, because Comixology as a company no longer exists. It’s a software product and a website; it isn’t an independent entity anymore.

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Here’s the real reason this switch has happened and why it’s a good thing.

Apple charged Comixology 30% on each comic bought via IAP. So if a new comic costs $3.99 on the store Comixology only gets $2.79. Now Comixology has to pay the comic creators (Marvel, DC, Image, ect.) a cut of that $2.79 and have enough left over to not go in the red. Also before they can put a comic in their store, it has to be programed for “Guided View” which seems like it would be pretty time consuming and thus expensive.

Amazon, on the other hand, pays the creators who’s comics it sells on the Kindle store the full $2.70 and pockets the rest.

Because of this Kindle has always had better prices then Comixology. That is why it makes sense for this to happen. It’ll cost Amazon less to sell a Comixology comic and they’ll pass that savings on to the consumer like they’ve been doing with the Kindle store.

Oh and there’s a promotion going on that gives existing users a $5 credit for anything in the new online store when they switch to the new app.

You know what, you’re right. I take all of that back. This is a disaster.

Sure, the creators get more of a cut because of this, but it also removes one key factor that made it important for the continuation and survival of the industry: convenience.

Convenience is one of the reasons that Steam is the biggest digital distribution and game client out there right now and has been credited with the survival and growth of PC gaming. Install Steam, set up an account, set up your payment option, then get to buying some games. The only time you need to open a web browser is to download Steam in the first place. Now can you imagine how Steam would’ve gone down if you had to shuffle between your browser and Steam to sync up your purchases, and Steam only served as a game client rather than as a storefront alongside other useful features?

On iOS Apple insist that all digital products are sold using their payment infrastructure, for which they charge 30%.

Amazon want to use their own infrastructure and run purchases through the customer’s Amazon account. Apple won’t let them.

I understand that Apple can charge for using its infrastructure. I don’t understand why, unlike on Android, developers can’t choose which payment platform to use.

You imply that all free apps – like Facebook and Twitter – are freeloading on Apple’s generosity by not revenue sharing. It is the availability of these apps that allow Apple to sell the hardware in the volumes it does today.

I am still mad about this stupid decision. I know a lot of people who are dropping the comixology app all together because of it. If I were at a computer I’d read it there… I am very disappointed with comixology. I can still purchase Marvel comics through their app, but not all publishers have their own app. The real reason is Amazon… and their stupid policies. I can’t read comic’s on a regular kindle… Only a kindle fire… which I don’t have…

We can try and make ourselves look clever all we like with arguments about hardware platforms and 30% fees – but here’s the reality: i’ve been a loyal customer of ComiXology for the last few years, spending on average about £40 (or $70) a week on comics. It has been an excellent introduction back into the medium for me personally and I’ve loved every minute of it – even going beyond my usual Marvel comfort zone to take in all manner of unusual and independant material (even some DC – ha!) over that period.

As of today, I have removed the now redundant ComiXology app and replaced it with the Marvel Comics app.

You see most of the comics I read are and always have been Marvel. They have an app where I can buy the comic there and then and consume it how I wish to. I would never want to back out of the reader to go buy the comic somewhere else then go back to the reader app. That’s ridiculous.

So regardless of who is wrong and who is right from a platform or royalties perspective, everyone in this scenario seems to lose – Amazon have lost my $70 a week (as I’m no longer using their application – or I am using a licensed versuon for which they will make a much reduced amount), the independant comic book producers have lost a portion of that spend (as I will no longer buy interesting and unusual titles on a whim through an excellent bit of software) and I no longer have the choice I had before.

Literally nobody wins and I, for one, am as frustrated as Bruce – as once again an organisation shoots itself in the foot by placing profitability above the thing that makes its product viable.

Let’s not kid ourselves – profit is the reason this switch has happened and it’s a bad thing.

I got back into comics after a very long hiatus because of Comixology. It was easy to check out a new comic from a range of publishers and start buying right away if I happened to find something good. I have literally spend over $100 in a couple of months on comics after almost ten years of not picking up a single issue of anything. It was just so easy to find and read new things while away from everything but my phone. This app was amazing, and really brought me back to my youth. This is no longer the case. I really feel for the smaller publishers that I will no longer accidentally stumble upon. Amazon may make more money per comic now, but I see the audience drying up. I know I’ll probably move on with as many obstacles they are putting up. It’s really sad for the industry.